


Sleeplessness

by orphan_account



Category: Gorillaz
Genre: But it's just like briefly mentioned, Cuddling & Snuggling, Emetophobia, F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Nightmares, OT3, Phase 3, Whump, some time around Do Ya Thing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-13
Updated: 2014-01-13
Packaged: 2018-01-08 15:23:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,254
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1134251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After they begin to regularly share a bed, Noodle learns what keeps her boys from sleeping peacefully, and does what she can to help.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sleeplessness

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this at like 5 AM.

When 2D has a nightmare, he cries and kicks and wakes with a start yelling about zombies or whales or cyborgs. When this happens, he usually snaps back to reality almost right away, apologizes for waking you and Murdoc up, and falls back to sleep quickly. If it was very bad he may ask you to hold him, or hold onto you tightly, but that's usually the extent of it. What's difficult is knowing if he's crying in fear, or in pain.

For some reason, if he gets a migraine while he's asleep his body doesn't want to wake up until its nearly unbearable. He's woken you up before sobbing into your back, out of his mind in pain and calling for his mother, for you, for his pills, for death. You mostly slept together in your room, so you run into his mentally kicking yourself for not having a bottle in yours already. It takes you far too long to find them, rummaging through a drawer full of empty bottles (and you always yell at him for not throwing them out when they're empty but of course he never remembers). You run back to your room, hit Murdoc upside the head for having turned on the lamp, and pour a pill out into your palm.

Despite his poor decision to turn on the light, Murdoc at least had the foresight to grab the wastepaper bin; he sat by and watched awkwardly while 2D heaved and retched painfully. You rubbed 2D's back and asked him if there was a chance he could keep something down if it was only medicine and a few sips of water. He shakes his head no, and immediately regrets it as it causes another stab of pain to shoot through his eyes and brain.

After a short while Murdoc goes to his own room; you cannot blame him. Even after 2D coaxes his pills down you're up most of the night with him, rubbing his back as he buries his face into the pillow and whimpers. He falls into a restless sleep just as the sun is rising, and you only spare a moment to draw the shades before falling asleep yourself.

You try to watch for restless sleeping now, waking up quickly if someone tosses and turns too much. The second you spot tears or hear whimpering you shake 2D gently awake, and in doing so have saved you both from several long and painful nights. It's a good thing you're not a heavy sleeper, you think. But then, there are some things that even a relatively light sleeper will still miss.

Murdoc's nightmares are very different from 2D's. You always knew how 2D got, having heard him have them growing up, but you never even thought Murdoc _got_ nightmares until the three of you started sharing a bed regularly. He does not scream, or kick, or wake with a start. He curls in on himself and shakes. He cries quietly, like even in his dream he is afraid to be heard. Sometimes he mutters things to himself that you cannot make out, but whatever they are he sounds terrified. The first time you even noticed him having one, it was because you fell asleep reading something on your phone and an app notification had buzzed loudly next to your ear. By the light of your cell phone you could see his shivering form and quickly realized that something is wrong.

You whisper loudly for him to wake up, your accent thick as you speak English from habit rather than any conscious effort. Even shaking him does not cause him to stir; if anything, it seems to make his experience worse.

Your worry increases as he refuses to respond, and you are wide awake now. You sit up on your knees and drag him up with you, and this seems to help your cause some; a bit of shaking by the shoulders and he wakes suddenly, flinching and then staring at you blankly; he looks almost like he's in a trance, tears still dripping steadily from the corners of his eyes.

And then, all of a sudden, he hugs you so quickly and suddenly it makes you gasp in surprise, buries his face in your shoulder, and cries, silently as before. You only know there are tears from the wetness and his irregular shuddered breathing. He lets fourth a torrent of what you can safely assume to be 40 something years of repressed tears and for some reason, because he is barely awake or because he thinks he's still dreaming or because he trusts you so much or because he's finally gone insane, he has decided to open up. He is trembling like a fearful mouse and clutching the fabric of your pajama top like he's scared you'll try to leave. You begin rubbing his back in small circles, gently shushing him and whispering to him that its ok; whether you're talking about the fact that he's crying or the world outside of his dream, you aren't totally sure. Both, probably.

Eventually he cries himself back to sleep slumped against you, and he hugs you like a baby koala for the rest of the night. He acts completely normal (for him at least) the next day, and although you're worried for him you decide not to press. No matter how lightly you sleep there's no way you could be woken by him like that; you're sure they happen more often, but you only wake up when he's having one by pure chance. You know there's no use in getting him to talk about it; it pains you to let a problem like this persist, but there's nothing you can do.

It's a lot of work to keep your boys safe, but that work is not without its rewards. You smile to yourself as you wake up to see them on either side of you sleeping peacefully. You get up carefully, and after returning from the bathroom you see that they have unconsciously filled in the gap you created; they are now face to face, snuggling each other, and you pull out your phone to take a picture. It's your new background, in fact, and you can't wait to tease them about how cute they looked later.

You make yourself a new space on 2D's other side and snuggle up yourself. He rolls over and cracks his eyes open slightly, smiling at you sleepily. He yawns and wishes you a slurred "g'mornin'" before Murdoc cracks one of his eyes open and grabs 2D, informing him that "we've still got another hour faceache, shut up".

"But I'm awake _now_!"

"We'll I'm not"

"Then how are you talking to me?"

"I talk in my sleep"

"No you don't"

"Well I do now".

2D is about to say something else when you stifle your giggles by kissing him, and his resulting confused expression is enough to make Murdoc start laughing as well. The combined laughter proves infectious, and 2D quickly finds himself laughing along too. Before long all three of you are wide awake and grinning hugely at each other.

Checking your clock you find that you indeed had another hour left before your alarm went off.

"Well, we're awake now" you say, rolling out if bed and pulling off your shirt as you walk across the room. "I'm taking a shower".

Just as you're about to close the bathroom door, you pause and face them, smiling.

"You two probably should too".


End file.
